


Rebellious Rites

by tzingfung



Series: Time Will Tell [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1950s, Alternate Universe - High School, Blood and Violence, Drugs, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Murder Mystery, greasers and jocks, inspired by b movies of that time??, mentions of smoking, nevada test site
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-06 09:08:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15191471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tzingfung/pseuds/tzingfung
Summary: A gruesome murder! And no one to point fingers at. A cryptic boy returns to his hometown, and a mystery that unravels itself to indestructible lengths. In the year 1953, a whirlwind of havoc unfolds in the little unknown town North Star, Nevada. Keith returns home but little does he know he is the designated driver for this disaster, he is put up against uncontrollable depths far larger than himself, and that's not just his love life. A Time Will Tell spin-off.





	1. Timeslip

**Author's Note:**

> Music that inspired me:  
> atom bomb baby - five stars  
> I don’t want to set the world on fire - the inkspots  
> sh’boom -crewcuts  
> lonesome town - ricky nelson  
> 
> 
> This has been in the ol’ noggin for a while now. I’ve had a few crucial ideas here and there but it’s all been close to the gutters, but here it is saved and savoured even, by some new ideas and renditions from the aftermaths of S6. Thank you for those that showed their appreciation for Time Will Tell, thank you for helping me come together for the idea of Rebellious Rites, a spin-off of TWT. And thank you Keith and Shiro for showing that angst and destruction that may follow them witlessly but nevertheless, will always end up in a collectively unshameful romance, where love defeats between these two horny star-crossed lovers, thank you for forever being the muse I pine for. And so here we are, thank them, thank it (as in TWT) for the early appearance of this fic that could have just as well have been kept in my mind’s grave til time forgot. 
> 
> I should also note as it’s a spin-off there are a few details here and there that contradict a few details in Time Will Tell but hope you enjoy this kind of new telling anyway.
> 
> You can read Time Will Tell [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9659720/chapters/21821984).

_I don't want to set the world on fire  
_ _I just want to start a flame in your heart_

“Oh, Donny would you listen to me for once?”

_Honey, I love you too much_

Ginger Sinclair, varsity student, in charge of the squabbling cheerleaders at Sandy Dunes High and dating a triple threat Lacrosse player, had everything under her belt because that’s how it’s supposed to be, fitted into this pre-mould that was finely crafted and set out for her since starting up in high school. That’s what her parents had been and theirs even, and that’s what her friends expect her to be. All. Round. Perfect.

Eyes melted chocolate and hair a rusty auburn red, hazy in the ill-lit night. Her nose was long but defining dipped into the nook of her boyfriend’s collarbone and a beauty mark rested between the nest of freckles that drew constellations on her face, it made its mark above her full crescent lips, those lips currently snug and snagged by-

“Donny Chamberlain, stop for a second and hear me out!”

For Ginger, life fluttered gracefully, it has never been trampled on nor struggled at the bottom of the food chain, not in its unpoetic ways at the very least. And what she means by that, is that when she wants to be seen as the damsel in distress, for the attention and bargaining of her own needs to be put first place, well, of course, she would sacrifice her dignity a few times. She was a beautiful butterfly sailing through high school ringed by fellow caterpillars and worms. She crushed that beautiful butterfly and became something incredibly more as soon as she got her main squeeze between her grasp, her final goal in her high school wish list. This was it. She kept thinking at the very beginning with him, I made it. _Boy, wouldn't mama be proud if she was still with us?_

It was the life.  
It was cladded by her lover as the car was planted on the edge of Makeout Creek Hill just on the edge of town, with anticipation rinsing up and down her moonlit skin and hunger depleting his eyes and his greedy hands. On the midst of Nevada’s heatwave, roll after thick roll of gassy humidity fumbling between them, it didn’t stop them feeling the tension ease under each other’s touch. But the emotions only seem to curdle and start to taste rancid for Ginger, as the heat grew and her anxiety broke elapsing the weak wall she created to protect her reality. The heat started to lick their skin uncomfortably as they made out. Ginger shining with a sheet of a new layer of sweat, not originating from the heat, she looked like she was dosed in a mysterious spotlight.

“We- we have to warn people, you know? I think that’s- yes, I think that’s the best plan we got here… friends at Sandy Dunes, even our parents, Donny, they all gotta know.” She allowed one hungry swoop from Donny towards her remorsefully bitten lips but her eyes were strangely lit as if expecting something. She needed him to comply, to have it her way, as it always had been but this time it was urgent.

Unlike Ginger, Donny was laid back, his chest grew bare, where he took his shirt off only moments ago, he was studying Ginger rather thickly, lazily, a drooling stare from point A to point B. His hair was a mishmash, swept between Ginger’s tough pointed nails, she was ladled atop his thighs that widened for her, a cigarette lazed behind his ear, as it always did, a thing that Ginger always swooped for when he wasn’t looking when his eyes pried elsewhere. He only wanted one thing and it was nothing to do with warning people about something or rather. Honestly, he couldn’t care less, he thought everything Ginger had been saying up to that point was absurd, _anyone would think so,_ he thought to himself.

_And I know, baby, ain't nobody else gonna do..._

“Ginger, when have you, bless your soul, ever worried about someone other than your beautiful self?” His sneer lazed and seesawed between mock and impatience, it was blunt, just as his movements were. A small silence dwelled, Ginger in deep contemplation, making new webs in her brain, _find a way, find a way to make them all see, make them understand._ Donny’s leg itching up and down, up, down, yoyoing to the dying and depleting atmosphere and rising heat. _Well, fuck it._ He thought, he took Ginger’s cheek, hand pressed against her many dotted freckles that scattered everywhere, before attempting to kiss her again, _“May I?”_   Donny mouthed and did so apparently, Ginger wanted to do everything he wanted to do, to forget, forget what she saw the night before that marooned her for the whole day, monsoon her lovely night now with her boyfriend, of course all she wanted to do was what they were doing right then minus the haunting feelings she couldn’t wash away with just words being spoken out loud. Just one more, one more fleeting kiss. Her eyes bulged and a second later she pushed him away, he complied, fearing he must have hurt her in his haste.

_I've lost all ambition for worldly acclaim_  
_I just want to be the one you love_

Ginger points behind him, her other hand scratching at his bare chest. “There’s a shadow.”  
_So what?_ Donny thought, there’s a ton of pervs that loiter around Makeout Creek, greasers and potheads alike, what to do but to continue the hot makeout sess. Let them all see. But as she felt cold under his touch, frozen in place, he moved his seat back despite himself, since she didn’t budge, he peered over behind himself with a sigh as he squinted attempting to take a closer look. He saw nothing. As he turned, “Baby, there’s nothing, nothing out the-” It was loud, draining of any other thought or sound or action, piercing into the seconds and then all the time Ginger had left. Brain matter went in his eye, he couldn’t even remember how to blink, how instincts swayed into action to protect you, that didn’t happen, it just splattered himself temporary blind. Headshot, a clean fine shot through her head. Right through his girlfriend’s head. Ginger’s. And he saw no one.

_I'll have reached the goal I'm dreaming of, believe me_  
_I don't want to set the world on fire..._

_...I just want to start a flame in your heart_

 

A grunted roar ripped into the desert as dusk dawned its landscape. Sand rippling profusely with bleached orange dust around the black motorcycle tires, a metal monster that had whipped by eating up the empty road ahead. Vibrations worthy of shattering teeth channelled through the old jaunty metallic bus’ interiors where Keith Kogane rode and watched in awe. The bike was wavering in the empty road ahead of them, running straight for the dying sunset towards one destination that crept into vision. Keith hasn’t been in the small town that became clearer now on the horizon for a long time, a hidden town in front of a running length of dunes shaped like mountains in its background. A place that usually made the passing eye skirt across, a forgotten town for those who were strangers to it but a harbouring home full of life, parties and long lasting friends for those that lived within. Most that lived there, had been there since they were born, some may never leave but for Keith, North Star, Nevada hadn’t been his home for some time, three whole years away from home, not since-

The bus bumped over something hard and Keith saved himself by gripping tightly on the seat in front of him. He breathed out a heavy hot sigh as he closed his eyes waiting for the bus to arrive into a known void.

 

_“Good Ol’ big morning to our students today at Sandy Dunes High, lunch includes a very special treat, indeed, yes, brownies specially made by our favourite cheerlea-_

“There better be some extra somethin’ somethin’ in there this ti-”

_“-for the charity of children without homes, and of course...”_

Keith felt distant somehow when returning to Sandy Dunes High, something he once knew, now strange and unfamiliar to his touch. It wasn’t exactly like a new place, rather that he missed out on everything, people ageing, the town growing and evolving, it simply made you realise, the whole place could live without you, you were a blimp in a world that used to mean everything to you, meant nothing back to them. He didn’t know what to expect, maybe it was that he expected nothing at all but left his heart to its mysterious wanting for something much better, a more hopeful and happier return.

The corridors felt like a deranged hostile dog that was once a friend that was now a stranger in someone else’s leash. He went into AP Art a little baffled that he kind of remembered the steps towards the class but somehow it was in someone else’s shoes. Mr Rice was there, of course…. at least old Mr Rice was here, he would always be. He had spoken to Keith while he was a sophomore, saw his art for the school play —a lush backdrop of a molten gold sunset washing Ancient Greece with a soft blanket of dying light—, said he should do AP Art and well Keith thought that was ludicrous because he wasn’t much of an artist, years went on and the passion still riddled to his fingertips, paintbrushes littered even the corners of his room back in Houston where he had been living these past three years. He remembered all of it though, and so did Mr Rice, a small pleated smile turned on his old saggy face.

“Why, Mr Kogane, it’s good to see you again, especially so in my class!” He announced to the rest of the class who were pretty much occupied in their own endeavours of catching up with their friends and with the weekend that went by so fleetingly. As Keith waltzed by, Mr Rice plucked him up by the nape in his engulfing hands, chapped and rung by layers of sagging skin, an ancient one he was, it was all affectionately of course, but Keith couldn’t help but squirm away from his touch by habit.

“Seriously, it’s good to see you here, I hope you have worked endlessly on your talent.”

“I have,” Keith added pretty sheepishly, wanting to get to his desk at this point. Mr Rice nods, a little too proud of himself as if he himself, had been possessing Keith with such talent for the arts while he was away.

“Yes… good, good.” He heard Mr Rice mutter behind him as he finally reached his new desk.

Keith stood at his empty desk, staring at the girl that sat at the desk behind it.

“Pidge, hey-” Pidge cut him off, she didn’t even bother to look up, in a rush she stowed away the notebooks and textbooks that were scattering her desk and with papers threatening to let loose from under her arm’s grasp, she moved to the other side of the room.

Before Keith could interpret any of it, the class began, Mr Rice ran up and down what was to be accomplished for the day and introduced Keith offhandedly, being caught up in the whirlwind that is his life of art, but all Keith could think about was what was he going to do for the rest of the year, if he could make it that far.

 

In the middle of the day, before lunchtime had begun, Keith was prompted to go to the principal's office over the crackling intercom.

Principal Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe, the latest of the Smythe family to have taken over the long runnings of the school, the same principal Keith had since he had begun and probably until the next line of the Smythe family comes forth to take his place for the faculty throne.

“I know this is usually the case for new students and you’re practically an alumni now, but we still need to go through this procedure you see, Mr Kogane, we’re built on procedures here at Sandy Dunes and you have missed so much. The built, the structure-”

“Sir, what do you want to tell me?”

“Right, right, I seem to have gotten carried away… again.”

The Principal was leaning backwards and forwards in his squeaky chair as his mind ran far ahead of him, letting go of the pedals of the bicycle as he flies down a steep hill, his spiel didn’t seem to want to end but then his eyes darted back between the clock and at Keith and his bristly moustache twitched as the clock’s hand moved a tick.

“Well, we want to make your experience as comfortable as possible, you see? And with your parents gone now- my condolences, I am utterly flabbergasted and full of dread, they were good students here too, well just like your mothe-”

“Sir…”

“Yes, uh, yes, it’s hard to work as hard as you will in your final years here at Sandy Dunes and you need to fit in, it’s a press on that reset button. Here are some leaflets, just in case.”

They were for the school’s counselling and other services for fitting in. Keeping every toe in line for Principal Coran Smythe’s perfect institution.

“Right, thank you, sir… for everything.”

His smile reached ear to ear, happy to hear his rambles went somewhere other than dead on the floor. “Well yes, good! Have a wonderful rest of the day Mr Kogane and make sure to go to Lacrosse practice at the end of the day, it’s mandatory for everyone to go to some sort of tryouts, and well wouldn’t it be fun?”

Keith halted in his tracks, as he was midway through the door, quickly shoving the pamphlets in his backpack. “What?”

  
“Kogane! Just get out of here.” The lacrosse coach bellowed from the other side of the field an hour or so later, Keith went beet red with anger being called out in front of everyone else.

_“New kid got clanked on his first day.”_

Keith returned to the boys’ locker room mumbling how he didn’t want to do tryouts anyway, could have been a little bit easier on someone who only liked boxing as a sport.

The room poured out with smoke, Keith squinted through it to find his locker.

A giggle revealed itself. “Uh, hello?” Keith didn’t exactly shout but he saw the figure jumped and coughed.

“You smoking pot there?”

The figure turned around, “Lance?”

Lance’s eyes bulged in his head, and a gleaming smile wafted away his earlier sense of dubiousness, “Oh fuck, if it isn’t Keith Kogane, thought I heard a familiar shrill.”

“Oh, fuck off.” They hugged in the rigged sense, he hadn’t seen his old friend in three years when Keith left, he left without a trace.

“What you doing in here anyway?" Lance asked as they broke away, “Thought tryouts aren’t over.”

“Oh yeah, well… I got kicked out, probably banned for life too.”

“Look at you! Nothing’s changed with your temper.” He guessed, and guessed right.

Keith rolled his eyes and leaned back against the locker beside him. “What about you? What are you doing here? You’re not exactly making it hard for the coach to not notice this.” Keith wavers a hand at the misty smoke that crowded the room as he breathed out a small chuckle and a cough.

“Look, you’re _new,”_   He fingered quotation marks, “here and all so you wouldn’t know but Coach is a cool guy, where do you think I get my stash?”

Keith’s mouth gaped open and a small smile revealed itself, “Well, shit, things have changed around here.”

“Come on,” Lance moved away from his spot, killing the blunt against the locker behind him, “Let’s get outta here.”

They wondered out to the corridors that were now sparse from students that had already sauntered out to the blazing sun and spending luxurious time at home.

“-I’m so sorry to hear Keith, aw man, I wish, I don’t know as cheesy as it sounds, a happier reason why you returned but fu-”

“Lance! Lancey Lance!” A curdling familiar voice petered into their perimeter, Keith distinctly felt rigid and tied down to the spot.

“Sendak…” His smile grew when he saw Keith recognised him after all those years and still making a notable significance to him.

Keith stabbed a look at Lance, “You’re with the knock-up jocks?” They got that name after knocking up a lot of girls as well as knocking out a lot of those they disliked, which ultimately included Keith and Lance back in the day but seemed like times had certainly moved on.

“Oh wow, a real stinger there Kogane, right to the heart.” Zarkon had a placid face but his hands had struck to his heart as if Keith did, in fact, strike him physically. Keith ignored him and continued to interrogate Lance who was trying to worm out of it all.

“Cool it, alright, lot’s changed, Keith, you left us, Pidge and me… we had our own lives, paved our own paths, it wasn’t just about you, you know? What was I supposed to do when one day you were here and the next without notice you had vanished without a trace.”

Lance was getting a little red in defiance, he wasn’t really good at confronting people that way. Keith knew what happened three years ago was shitty, but it wasn’t like he had a choice, his parents were the ones forking a bright future for him, he was there as a small puppet obeying it all without question.

“Oh look, Lancey, you’re making the boy cry.” They were in hysterics, by no means was Keith planning to cry but he sure was about to gut them like a fish if they didn’t cut it in the next second. Keith flickered a look behind them, there was movement beside the wall of lockers, he was already looking at him when Keith noticed him. Shiro.  
He looked different now, which was to say the obvious. He was tougher looking, there was more strength held atop his shoulders, he stood taller with his new intact confidence and facade.  
It wasn’t just that, his hair was lighter too, different, but a good different. His face softer around the edges, though physically, it was toughened up, and full of jagged-edge, defining his jaunty look. His eyes pierced him, it could cut through skin.

Keith looked away feeling the embarrassment swell up inside him, he was bloated as a balloon filled with pressurising water ready to implode any moment.

_Lance, seriously…_

“Anyway, turns out I’m pretty good with a lacrosse stick and well, when you left I had no one but Donny, he’s captain of the team- we got real close, and became good friends, which meant, by default, becoming good friends with the rest of the jocks, because that’s how it is, right, it’s like a brotherly pact, we’re all in this together.” He laughs awkwardly, shaking just as his shoulders sagged, “No matter how much you hate the guy you gotta start lovin’ him now, anyway so I just joined all in, got the jacket and all and yeah…” Lance trailed. Keith didn’t give a fuck about how it came to be. He knew that he felt betrayed and rotten since they started high school, all the jocks did was treat them like shit and he was fine with throwing that on the backseat and let them drive and roll on outta here with his hands tied to his back?

Lance jumped in the spot with realisation, “Oh yeah, where is Donny?” Lance asked the others as Keith in the spur of the moment, walked away hearing them mumble how they have no clue where he was at. 

 

The sky was a bleak and dull wash, only to be revived by splashes of soft golds and reddish oranges painted the final shine of the day. Keith was standing in his small kitchen staring at a packet of spaghetti, and been staring at such for five minutes now, “How the fuck does it all fit in the pot?” He sized them up a few times making sure and still to no avail. _Crap._ He wished he paid attention to his mother, though she hadn’t been home a lot, but when she was, the food was out of this world.

The water started to bubble so he dumped the whole package in anyway despite himself, as a series of rattling hard knocks barricaded his front door making him jump back to reality.

“Keith, my boy!” Keith, before taking in what was happening at his threshold was swallowed up by an incoming hug, turns out it was his uncle, the one that lives with his aunt not too far away. They had called him up before he left Houston, that if they ever needed anything they would be able to help look after him now he’s back in Nevada.

His aunt fell away a few paces behind the two of them giving them room. “Smells good.” She nods approvingly. Keith felt immediately, something wedged between them, though he shook it off, believing or more like hoping it was all just in his mind. He had never met these relatives but had seen the pictures when he was sorted out by social services. Though he thought they were distant to him when it came down to lack of knowledge of their existence prior to this, his mother’s sister looked a lot like her, in a way it registered in Keith’s brain that he could trust them, so when she felt cold under his touch, he worried he had done something wrong to offend them.

“It’s nice to see you, Keith, I-we haven’t seen you since you were a baby, doubt you’d remember us.”

“I’ve seen pictures.” Keith simply said as he invited them in, feeling a little bit under prepared for this rush of a meeting. “You want some?” He points to the boiling pot.

His uncle opened his mouth but Keith noticed his aunt touch his arm lightly, “Oh no, glasses of water is fine, we’re just here for a quick checkup, we don’t want to keep you.” Keith nods and smiles politely as he returns to the kitchen for their drinks.

As soon as he does so, his uncle faced his wife, “When are we going to tell him, shouldn’t we do so now?”

She closed her eyes and grimaced, “No, not yet.”


	2. The Day the Earth Stood Still

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing recently has been cathartic, it has suction-cupped onto my anxieties and blasted it into space far from my reach, well for a little while, but a little while is enough. I don’t know why I’m telling you this, maybe it’s because this fandom means so much to me, that these characters bear more than words but their own soul, or maybe I have nothing left to offer but my words and my words alone will get me going. In the end, what I’m trying to say is, I’m trying to give back to the fandom—particularly the sheith fandom— that keeps on giving, and such wondrous things at that. I’m trying to do this in a multitude of ways, I give you this fic, amongst the others on my account but also I give you three beautifully created (if I do say so myself) sheith playlists, which you can listen here:  
> [stars burst under your touch](https://open.spotify.com/user/tzingfung/playlist/29cNtG3jPaKXzxXoJKwVHN?si=twaNDEP6TbKx0pBrVrejiA)\- for angst  
> as many times as it takes \- a rush of love to hardship  
> [mouth full of stars](https://open.spotify.com/user/tzingfung/playlist/3yKQBPegezeLwQHNrtX9C5?si=qc0BIm8uRXaRbjxeUsrxaA) \- the void of space never felt less lonely until now
> 
> Enjoy.

The few trees, thick with its lifeless limbs that had surrounded Makeout Creek murmured the secrets that the slumbering town knew no knowledge of. The whistling breeze rasped, spat and suckled onto the final leaves that had petalled down, they gasped at the shape that formed on the creek’s abrupt peak. And there, below its horrific beauty, all packaged up like a glorified gift, a bloody package the size of a teenage girl was inside.

 

>   
>  Wednesday 25 February 1953  
>  A feature found in Houston’s Daily Tribune.
> 
> **“The battle of the great fire: one heroic firefighter versus his life with the blaze”**
> 
> Houston has not seen a high calibre fire such as the one witnessed late last night for years, but famous firefighter Heath Kogane has fought them all big and small, all except this one.
> 
> A family already staggered by its own dispute and loss, when mother of a single child, Krolia Kogane had gone missing a year ago. The two remaining members of the family, Keith Kogane, young son loved by many in his community and his much-adored father, Heath Kogane, a saviour smartened by his firefighter uniform, ironically perished in his own house’s fire, late last night at 3 am in the early winks of the morning. The family were sleeping soundly when, as told by investigators, photos that were scattered about their first floor had caught on fire. There is still an investigation as to how this was initiated. Keith Kogane had woken up first, the smell of smoke setting him off out of his slumber, he ran towards his father’s bedroom but the fire had caught up fast, the ceiling had collapsed as the smoke had fumed upstairs, Keith had been barred to one side of the landing but this was when he heard his father, “I could hear him, shouting.” Keith had told us earlier today. His hands were wrung, his eyes skirted away from me as he spoke, deep in saddened thought. “He was screaming for me to get out, to think he said nothing about calling for help for him! He was in there, f-ing trapped.” He got up and paced the room. It was to no avail as Keith a defiant son, one that put his own family first had defied his father’s last wish. After a segmented pause, a cackling of the growing fire that blew like the wind kindled to the weather just outside the house that was now caught ablaze, Heath Kogane resigned, he admitted it was too late for him. I asked Keith Kogane what about the window he must have in his bedroom. He shook his head defeated, “Been jammed since we were there, even so, it was as small as the chair I sit on.” Which was estimated one square width. Keith left reluctantly when the fire grew fast around his ankles. “I love you, I love you always dad, I don’t want to leave you. I don’t want you to go too.” Was his final pleas, he heard his dad cry, he heard him say it back, “I don’t want to go too. I love you, son.” The part of the ceiling with the light still attached had fallen and Keith fell back before scrambling downstairs to the front door. As soon as he done so, screaming for help the fire licked up, climbing towards heaven and there was no way in again or no way out.
> 
> It is to say Heath Kogane did not survive this fire but the investigation goes forth with further detail as to how such a thing could have been caused, if there were such a malicious reason or not. There will a ceremony in the town hall tomorrow at 6 pm to honour the community’s favourite firefighter to have only perished by the only thing he fights against to save us all.

  
  
“Did you hear? You must have, it was all over the papers, the radio even!” Grumbling groans rippled from across the school’s cafeteria table, everyone was tired from last night’s party, all except Keith who hadn’t even been invited. Jocks only. That kind of thing, apparently it happened often.

“Cut some slack, Mac. No, we haven’t heard.” Zarkon griped while he ripped up the bread roll he had a grip on, into many pieces leaving crumbs falling to his lap without care. He winced as his headache rushed blurry pain to his temples. The rest of the table either sighed or looked at Sendak with annoyed expectancy. _Well? We’re waiting._ A look of driven bloodshot eyes his way, Keith envied none of them. He who sat on the other side of the large long table, to himself and his hardly touched lunch tray. He tried not to make it too obvious that he was curious on what the news was all about.

Lance had glanced up at him once since he walked into the cafeteria and all the way towards their table but the piercing look back that Keith had given him made Lance snap his head back, eyes front.

Zarkon, who now neglected his dilapidated bread roll and dug deep into his chocolate pudding cup with his index finger, sucking hungrily as he looked up at Sendak who was still reeling. “Well, out with it.” always the one with little patience, huh. He’s still in charge of the lot, nothing’s changed since freshman year when they all started out and Keith was unapologetically introduced to him, with his knarly fists.

“I can’t believe it, you all seriously didn’t hear? It’s literally everywhere.”

“Look.” Zarkon dropped his finished pudding onto the tray and shoved it away from him, he pivoted around his seat to look at Sendak eye to eye, impatience brewed. “Let’s just assume we didn’t, shall we?”

“Well,” Sendak itched by their proximity, laid his eyes around everyone else, Zarkon rolled his eyes and pivoted back in his seat. “Well… they found Donny’s girl, you know um…”

“You mean Ginger?” Lance added helpfully, everyone looked up at him grateful to finish Sendak’s endless drag this afternoon. Zarkon snapped his fingers at him, nodding approvingly as if conjuring Ginger by the action.

“Yeah!” Sendak continued, his eyes glowing with almost excitement. “Well, they found her. Dead as rain and at all places would you suspect but Makeout Creek.”

Lance slapped the table in response. Keith noticed Shiro in the corner of his eye, while everyone looked up now towards Sendak bearing the holy grail of news this mid-week. Shiro was poking his meal with his plastic fork, eyes cast down to the table, not once looking up as if unfazed.

“And Donny?”

So it was a little bit of a surprise when Shiro did pipe up, of all people who would worry. Lance nodded frantically and looked back to Sendak.

Donny… they must have had their fling, him and Ginger and what did that mean, where did Donny fit in all this?

Sendak just shook his head, a grim line casting his lips. “He’s MIA, haven’t been seen or heard, the police want to question him. They were probably together and all at the scene of the crime.”

Zarkon grumbled something but no one caught on Sendak snapped his head towards him, “What? Say that again?”

“It was Lotor.” His voice grew to bounce off every single one of the table’s guests. Everyone grew still. Zarkon was so sure of this fact. But Keith had no idea who this Lotor was. “He’s been bitching at practice since the two dated, jealous fucker.”

Lance leaned forwards, interest spiking his speech. “Donny said he thought he saw him outside his house once when he and Ginger were in deep waters smooching faces.”

“Lance, what are you? Three?” Sendak huffed with a smirk and was rewarded with a middle finger.

Zarkon was still focused and serious about his allegation. “If I get my hands on him, I swear to god...” He growled angrily.

“Zarkon.” Shiro cornered his attention to him, he gave him a look. Keith wished he could translate it to his own understanding. This was when everyone realised they had company, Keith had been gawking at the group for some time now, forgetting about his lunch entirely.

“What are you looking at?” Sendak piped up.

Keith tapped the table with his palm as if to get his attention back to himself, “Nothing.” He responded rather nonchalantly.

“Well, I don’t believe that.” Sendak continued. He scooted closer, leaning diagonally across the table to get closer to Keith. “You’re gonna rat us out for planning to kill a fellow jock.”

Keith didn’t lose his ground, “I mean, I suspected they were just words, no need for second thoughts but now you say it like that...” Keith smiled up towards him innocently.

Shiro snorted under his breath but hid it as he wiped his mouth with his index finger and thumb. Zarkon punched Sendak’s arm, he fucked them up good, Keith couldn’t help but genuinely smile this time.

“Well. Yeah.” Sendak reflected uselessly, forgetting his argument entirely.

_“They’re not just words.”_   Keith could have sworn Zarkon muttering this under his breath, he was shadowing the whole table, looking scarier by the second. Angrier even.

“Why you so pissed?” Lance had no fear for Zarkon’s wrath, Keith knew that that wasn’t always the case. Despite this, he did notice him shifting in his seat uncomfortably.

“He was an obsessive stalking freak, of course, I’m mad, what he did to Ginger and Donny…” He stood up glanced at each of them excluding Keith who he pretended wasn’t even there and prowled off. Sendak scooted over in his seat while it was still warm and finished off his fries for him.

“You don’t think…” Lance started, hanging onto his last unspoken words dryly.

Sendak looked up and paused in his munching, mouth still full he gulped it all down before replying, “Shit, Lance, no, geez.” Sendak belted down his carton full of milk and then after a weak burp pointed the carton towards Lance, “It’s fine, Lancey, all fine.” Lance sighed, in turn, holding deeper thoughts to himself. Not smiling back. They were all thinking the same thing.

Ginger’s gone for definite and their good friend Donny. Missing. His fate? Indefinite.

Keith stood up then, to leave finally. It felt awkward to stay any longer at this point. He took a steely glance at Shiro who was drawn to himself and was exceptionally quiet, he was still watching the door where Zarkon had left through moments ago. Now it was Keith’s turn to sigh, he turned around and bumped into Pidge, Pidge who looked pissed as all hell. She had her arms crossed and took a long exaggerative glance at Keith up and down, despite being two heads shorter than Keith she was starting to scare the hell out of him.

“Keith. Why are you here?”

“Uh, I was eating lunch like everybody?”

Her glare dragged to the ceiling with much effort.

“No…” She gripped his wrist and held it tightly, no, she was crushing it beneath her nails. “I mean,” the emphasis felt hot and heavy in the air as if dragging Keith to the ground. Whatever had he done for her to react this way towards his presence alone? “I mean here, at North Star, here at fucking Sandy Dunes High!”

He pulled to retrieve his wrist back but failed, her clenching was tough as a metal clamp. “Because…” He began but she instantly shook her head, her bangs dancing in the way of the winds.

“I don’t care, no it doesn’t matter now anyway.” She was fidgeting a lot, Keith noticed, she was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her other hand clenched into a fist then relaxed then clenched again and there was the fact that when she wasn’t talking she would look anywhere but Keith’s confused ogling.

As she went quiet for a moment, Keith pried onto the opportunity and asked, “Why Pidge, what’s wrong? What have I done wrong? Tell me.”

She flared but then stopped herself, her fists to her chests, clenching, finally had let go of Keith’s bruising wrist.

“Oh Keith, don’t you get it? That’s the thing with you, you fuck up, fuck up so hard again and again and every single damn time you think a little sorry, I’ll try my best next time will do you good?”

Keith was lost for words, it’s as if he picked up a novel and ending up starting to read it from the middle to end, with no clue of its context that was introduced from the beginning.

Everyone in the hall started to look towards them now. They had craned their necks to see the drama amidst the plenty in the cafeteria.

“Back then, a few years back, you remember back then, don’t you? Or has that slipped your mind too?” Keith didn’t know what to say so he nodded, “We were joined to the hip!” She rejoiced to the small ambling crowds that listened, that only grew larger with time and the words that slipped through her mouth with malice. Then she returned to him, her voice grew small suddenly, as if it had all turned personal, him to her, her to him, “you were my only friend, Keith. Then one day you just packed up and vanished, two words you concluded with me at my doorstep, see ya! You remember saying that? You did that and you expect me to, I don’t know, to forgive you, because that’s the thing with you, you just don’t see what hits us until it did its damage and well it’s too little too late.”

“Pidge, I-”

“No, Keith, it’s done, fuck you, goodbye.” And there she went marching away through the double doors.

Everything felt numb, disorientating, rushing over him, head full of a bloated headache. What just happened? Then his hearing came back and he heard a low stimulating whistle, but Keith, too dumbfounded couldn’t pinpoint who the culprit was, it made everyone in their surrounding area snicker.

“Looks like someone got dumped.” Sendak bellowed and then his own table started laughing, even Lance, his old friend, his old friend that was also friends with Pidge. Where was he? Why wasn’t he getting humiliated by Pidge in front of everyone as well? Keith looked up expecting Shiro to have been laughing the hardest, his biggest fear, but to his dismay or more like relief, he had already gone. Dumped felt right, but not in the way Sendak had intended.

Keith ignored them and left the cafeteria immediately. In the end, he found himself in front of his locker and pounded it with one heavy blow of a fist, pain seared through his hand but he dismissed it with frustration and humiliation washing over him like someone happened to plant a waterfall over him.

He just returned back to his hometown and already everyone seemed to hate or alienate him. How come one of his best friends betrayed him and now hangs with the bullies that once tormented their everyday school life? How come his other best friend that he had known since he was five now hates his guts? How come to the friend he thought he would have his back ‘til the end of time wasn’t even acknowledging him or on speaking terms with him anymore? Well, the latter had been a long-running problem since before his departure and return but it all added up in the end.

_“I don’t know what you’re on about!”_

_“Quiet! Quit playing dumb, Lotor or I’ll-!”_

The two voices were coming from just around the corner from where Keith stood. Hush angry whispers breaking Keith’s own rage, sobering up with curiosity and urgency to know. Keith followed the trail of whispers and when he found the source, he peered over the corner. He was welcomed by the sight of Zarkon holding another boy, he called him Lotor a second ago, he was being held up above the ground, by the shoulders.

“You killed her and I know it.” Zarkon hissed. Before Keith could hear what Lotor had to say he was pulled back around the corner and somebody’s finger pressing hard against his lips threatening him to stay quiet.

“What are you doing?” Shiro asked him in a hushed cautious tone looking down at Keith almost disapprovingly, or was Keith imagining the last bit?

In retaliation, Keith grabbed Shiro’s hand that was touching his lips, their hands lingered a little in an awkward grip without thought from either one of them before Shiro let it drop to his side.

“I could ask you the same question,” Keith responded hotly and a little too loudly.

“Shh!” Shiro ushered him further away from Lotor and Zarkon and after Keith pouted a little to himself, he followed suit.

They had a few moments left before lunch was over and the corridors would be swarming with students again, Keith wanted this conversation to be done as soon as possible. “So?” Keith folded his arms, fingers tapping lightly against them in irritation and impatience. Or maybe it was to do with the dark day that had loomed over him like an angry storm cloud. First the news of this mysterious murder of a girl he did not even know, then Pidge but mostly the fact that Zarkon knew more than he let on, he wanted to deal with it on his own and become the hero at the end of the day and that’s what pissed off Keith the most somehow.

Or, after some more thought, was it all pinned down to Shiro in the end?

“What?” he asked back innocently.

“No. Don’t don’t do this Shiro, I’m sick and tired of games, especially today, where did you go? I mean before this, you disappeared at the cafeteria.” The hidden or better question that he enveloped in this was: did you see the fight? Did you hear what Pidge had to say about me? And what would that make you think of me now? He didn’t dare to ask or to even let himself know.

“I had to find Zarkon,” Shiro responded flatly. Keith never doubted Shiro in the past but there were always firsts.

“I don’t believe you. You think I believe you took this long to try and find him when they’re rowdy as a rainstorm just around the corner of where you happened to be standing?”

“Keith.” He was testing his patience, he knew it and Shiro knew that Keith knew it. He looked tired. No, like the life was sucked out of him, something had happened between yesterday and today and whatever it was, it wasn’t healthy.

“Okay then. Why?” Keith changed the subject, maybe it would keep the conversation from expiring so soon, or maybe he wanted that. He didn’t know what he wanted with Shiro anymore.

“You heard him. He wouldn’t have anything stopping him, nothing would get in between him and Lotor. Not with that anger and determination he has.” Keith didn’t argue there, he knew too well.

“And you believe him, then?” It sounded like empty air bullshit to Keith that Shiro would care.

“No… maybe, I don’t know. But would it matter either way?” He was right, of course.

They both allowed the thought to sink into the silence that hung between them, more was there to be seen or told but they left it all untouched.

“Keith, I-” Shiro started but he suddenly stopped himself and looked to the ground instead.

“Save it, Takashi.” Keith murmured. He had enough drama for one day. Not wanting anything more, he walked away towards the school’s main doors as the bell rang to end lunch.

“And where do you think you’re going, Kogane?” _God, he sounded like Principle Smythe._

“Nowhere!” He mocked, as he turned to face the doors now, “Where does it look like I’m going? I’m skipping class. Doubt Pidge would like to see me again after what happened at lunch.” It slipped out of his mouth before he could catch and retract them. It came out naturally as the conversation had flowed between them almost like it had used to in the old days.

“What happened at lunch?” Takashi Shirogane, never leaving a detail unturned with Keith. But it proved Keith an answer to his earlier question. Good. He wasn’t there, he doesn’t know.

“Later. Another day maybe.” Keith relished in knowing Shiro would ponder on this or even feel frets of concern for him for a little while, it was a power Keith most enjoyed. He waved then, arm up in the air to express his farewell. _Good riddance._ As he left through the hefty double doors into the glorious thick sunlight.

After a small walk, Keith found himself outside a flamingo pink neon-lit diner. _The Diner_   named itself in curly writing. Nothing had changed about it since Keith had last visited. It wasn’t any old diner to Keith but the fact that it made itself special had given Keith a hard time finding every back route to get to school in the morning just to avoid the place before time was due.

“A chocolate milkshake, thanks.” When Keith ran in, he automatically fell into his old swivel pink seat by the front counter, ordering his usual. Old habits die hard but pivoting around on his seat to reintroduce himself to the place, he realised it all could be said the same for The Diner itself. The walls were still a bright pastel pink and the floors pink and white checkers. There were photographs everywhere of Keith, of his parents even… they were very close to the owners of the place.

He started fidgeting in his seat then, suddenly anxiety rushed like a blurring wind in his heart which was humming with its fast feather winged beat, his own fingers drilled onto the tabletop as if mining for gold.

“They told me you were back.” The waitress sorting out the drink said. Keith wasn’t too sure who _they_   were but he suspected his uncle and aunt, though he wouldn’t be surprised if it were the whole world with the rate of people’s remarks been towards him. She slapped the drink in front of him with a loud ricochet and surprisingly it didn’t spill despite it being perfectly filled to the brim with a very vibrant cherry cruising on top of its froth.

“But I said, ‘no, that can’t be, you see, he would come straight to me if he were back, we’ve been right as rain since he was a little kid, so of course he would,’ and yet here we are.” She turned and leaned on the counter top smiling mockingly at Keith, cloth still in hand.

“I’ve been busy, Allura, sorry, I would have come sooner but-” Keith ended sheepishly and well wasn’t it the truth?

“Keith,” She touched his hand lightly before pulling away she continued her stream of thought, “You live just right next door.” Keith shrugs as he started to sip his drink avoiding more probing into the whys and his whereabouts.

“Well,” she smiles through her sigh, “I’m glad you’re back, Keith.” She stands up and throws the dirty cloth over her shoulder. As she turns towards the tables that were in desperate need of cleaning she pauses in her tracks, “Oh and Keith?” Her hands on her hips.

“Hm?” His mouth full of chocolate milkshake, he looked up towards her.

“Next time don’t skip school to see me, alright? Or I’ll have to rat on you or somethin’ got it?” He gives her one nod and she smiles before trotting away again to do her work, Keith blew out a breath feeling the worst to be done is over.

Once he had finished his milkshake, a large rowdy gang came barging into The Diner, they shouted with laughter and crude jokes. Afterwards they noticed Allura who was struggling to catch up with orders and greeted her across the room, she smiled back toothily, obviously, they were all on good terms.

There was another pang in Keith’s chest, another thing he had missed when he put his life on pause in North Star, the lives of the ones he cared for had moved forwards with or without him.

“Uh, Keith?” Allura piped up as the crowds started to arouse with volume. “Could you be a darl’ and take that group’s orders for me, been busting it out all day, only one in the front and all.” She was right, the only other staff in the diner today were the kitchen staff who also looked buzzing and busy with orders.

Keith didn’t want to go back home, to face himself and his thoughts again in solitude, so he happily obliged by picking up a spare notepad and pen and swiftly walking towards the roaring gang.

He realised, as he had gotten closer that they were about his age, they were probably even from his school, it is the only one locally. Which led to another thing, if they were from his school it probably meant more prodding at the scene that was caused at lunch, at the fact that he was the new old kid or whatever. There were no good connotations for him since his return. It was all more drama he didn’t need.

“What can I get you guys?”

They paused in conversation and looked up at Keith as one. One of them, who had a black headband, gave Keith a goofy smile back like he knew something he wanted to hold against Keith. _Oh god, they’re probably going to say something._

“Look, if you guys say anything about what happened at lunch, I’ll tell Allura Y'all got too rowdy and would have to leave, got it?” Keith piped up, defending himself.

They all looked at each other until Headband snorted and leaned forward on his arms, to talk to Keith over the diner’s loud din.

“Dude, I don’t know what you’re on about.”

_Shit._ “Aren’t you guys from Sandy Dunes?” Keith asked a little flabbergast. Thinking he should stop overthinking and assuming for once all together.

“Well. Yeah.” He leaned back in his seat now, nonplussed until the booth’s plastic made a weird squeaking noise as he moved.

“We weren’t in the cafeteria if that’s what you were thinking.” He clicked the bones in his fingers as he spoke, probably out of habit. “We ditched.” he then covered the side of his mouth and had eyed Keith while whispering “just like you did.” and he winked.

Keith blew out everything he held in him into a shaky laugh, running a hand through his hair.

“Right…”

“Hey, hey it’s alright, man. I can imagine the shit you been through, new kid.” Headband snaps his fingers and points towards the empty seat diagonally opposite him, Keith resigned and took the seat. “We all know what it’s like to be the outsider, the outcast.” He smiled quickly. “Name’s Hunk,” he points to each of the others, “that’s Sal.” one with a beauty mark below his eye and the greasiest structured hair of them all, “and Tony, we call him Tiny though.” Tony or Tiny took out his toothpick and flicked it at Hunk with a mock ill will.

Hunk taps the table bringing it back to their previous conversation, “the school’s hierarchy is fucked, the fact that Zarkon is so apparent in charge says it all. So we show how different we really are from them losers.” He takes off his jacket and passes it to Keith for an inspection, “Reason why we started this shit up.”

It read: _Rebellious Rites._

“You’re a-”

“A greaser gang.” Allura came rolling in with her skates and tray with empty dirty glasses at hand, dismissing their grins.

“But a couple of troublesome rebels if you ask me.” She stopped beside their table now, one hand still in the air while the other one on her hip, but her smile made the comment easy. She knew them well. “They’re regulars.” She noted to Keith as if reading his mind. “Can’t get rid of them if I tried.”

Out of nowhere, she slapped Keith’s shoulder then, “I told you to take their orders and here you are slacking in my Diner-”

  
Keith surrendered up his hands, “Wait, hold up, you own the place now, what about your dad?” Keith knew Allura’s father well, he used to make the best milkshakes, luckily Allura caught on to his techniques.

Allura’s eyes bulged at him then she closed them, slowly shaking her head grimly. “He passed down his legacy to me when he passed away.”

Life really did move forwards without him.

 

When the evening became lukewarm, the sun was low, heavy and blinding. Keith took in a deep breath as he opened up the garage just below his studio apartment. It had been his father’s business before he was a firefighter when they all still lived in North Star. He was a popular man, everyone around the small town knew him, they would all fix or buff up their automobiles at his garage. Keith hadn’t stepped in it longer than he had left the place. It wasn’t in his concern, his interest even, he was even embarrassed by his father’s job, pretending his father had a more heroic career and well… queue guilt in the present day.

The air was thick with dust and before the memories could land and settle upon him Keith, he got ready and started tidying up the place from top to bottom. When he had finished the sky was dark as black ice on concrete, the air cooling slightly, and he was just opening a bottle of lemonade, squatting beside a tower of equipment behind his back watching the open garage door and the looming lights of pink from The Diner shining through. The quiet buzz was distant, it was calming, Keith started to feel tired when he heard footsteps and saw looming shadows through the light that was clouding through the night’s darkness at the door.

“Keith! This really your place?” Hunk hollered with awe. Keith almost forgot he invited them over earlier that day. He got up and yawned.

“Been here before.” Hunk continued now pondering around looking through the knick-knacks lying about, smile wet with nostalgia.

“Really?” Keith threw them all cans of beer and then walked up to Hunk who was looking at a photograph of Keith’s family. He was saddled with his father’s neck while his father ad lunged a loving arm around his mother.

Hunk nods still staring down at it, “Yeah, ol’ kogane’s garage! Big H Garage! Went with my dad a lot back in the day, he even helped pick the dirty banger I got now.”

Keith was surprised to hear, but really was he? When his father wasn’t just his own in this town but everyone's?

“Where is he anyways? Upstairs?”

Keith withdraws and turned around and leaned against the desk with his elbows so he didn’t need to see Hunk’s pity stare. “He’s gone. Dead.” Keith heard the words fall limply from his tongue but he didn’t will them to come out in the first place, it was almost a defence mechanism. He even felt his back go rigid, he was unmoved.

“For real?” Sal called out from across the room.

“Fuck, Keith, man I’m sorry,” Tony said from the deflated brown sofa shoved at the side, looked like he meant it.

Hunk was quiet gripping the photo then placing it down as delicately as he could, looking at Keith. “Keith, if there’s anything we can do…”

“It’s fine. I’m fine.” He walked away pacing in the empty space in front of him while everyone else had their eyes glued to him. Then he paused and looked towards the ceiling exposing the moon and sky, “I have to be. I’m all alone now.”

“You don’t have to be anymore.” Hunk walked up to him now, “Sal?” He looks to him and Sal jumps into realisation throwing him something. “Here. You don’t have to be alone if you don’t want to be.” He hands it over, Keith takes it and realises it was a leather jacket, Rebellious Rites scrawled at the back.

“This? You want me to join?” _Through pity?_

“Don’t get the wrong idea, we’re not feeling sorry for you, you seem like a rad guy from the get-go. But for real, we’re here for you, man.” He slaps Keith ’s back as Keith admires the jacket, feeling something warm and new settle within him.

“Hey umm, Keith, I know this is a bad time but what’s that?”  
Tony pointed towards a covered up piece of something on the side of the room, the only thing Keith neglected. He completely forgot about it as soon as they walked in.

“I don’t know…” He walked towards it and pulled away from the dusty fabric. “Oh, shit.”

Underneath was a black T-bird convertible rod, it was worn out and needed a desperate paint job but Keith felt his heart hoist itself, this was his father’s old car. It's his now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be away for a few weeks so the next update will come late, sorry!


End file.
